


Prismatic motley

by Sugarymemes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Heavy Angst, Illness, Injury, Injury Recovery, Light Angst, Major Character Injury, One Shot Collection, Sickfic, Sickness, Whump, all of the angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-03 21:18:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10975521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugarymemes/pseuds/Sugarymemes
Summary: ☆ Requests open! ☆A collection of whumpy/angst one-shots that I have nowhere else to put.Requests are open so if there's any whump you want to see then comment below or message me on tumblr: togepixels.tumblr.com ♡





	1. Green optics ☆

A calming silence echoed throughout the common room as the paladins - bar the blue one - sat quietly, peacefully getting on with whatever they wanted to do. Pidge typed away at her laptop, barely hitting the keys as her fingers glided from key to key. She was deep in concentration, her brow furrowed as she tried to decipher whatever was on the screen.

Sitting next to her, almost curled in on himself was Hunk - invested in a colourful alien magazine of some sort. The foreign characters made no sense to him, but he enjoyed the bright pictures. It reminded him of the gossip magazines his mother would read, back on earth.

Opposite the two of them, Keith sat, leaned forward, with his elbows on his knees as her ever so carefully polished one of his knives with some sort of silk rag he'd nicked from God knows where. Like Pidge, he was also highly focused. Though that should really be a given when you're playing with knives.

Shiro had leaned right back into the cushions of the sofa - his tired eyes closed, though he was still very much aware and alert, the fingers of his flesh hand drumming furiously on his lap. He shot up, as the door slid open and Lance barrelled in, a huge grin present on his face.

"Hey guys!" He began, enthusiastically as attention on the room focused on him.  
"Notice anything different about me?" Lance asked, twirling and pouting, still with that wonderful grin across his face.

The others studied him for a brief few moments before Hunk chipped in with a cautious "You got a haircut?".

Still smirking, Lance shook his head, as he plopped himself down on the empty seat reclining back into the cushions casually as he rested his arms across the back of the sofa.

"Nope, try again."

"New shirt?" Keith supplied, with a raised eyebrow. Lance almost looked horrified at the notion of this.

"Keith, if you know where I can get a new shirt in space, you gotta tell me." He asked, leaning forward as Keith shrugged nonchalantly.

"Have you finally discovered the secret of inner peace?" Pidge asked in what was probably meant to be a sarcastic tone - but you could never really tell with her.

"Sadly not, my little Pigeon. I'll let you know when I do."

Shiro stretched, before turning to Lance, and studied him hard as he grinned menacingly. Shiro furrowed his brow, as he tried to figure it out, not wanting to disappoint the blue paladin. He eventually sighed, and smiled weakly.

"What's different about you, Lance?" He asked patiently, as Lance sprung to his feet excitedly.

"Nothing!" He exclaimed, proudly, as Shiro looked desperately to Hunk, who simply shrugged in a defeated manner, mouthing 'No clue' silently.

"What?" Keith asked, bitterly.

"Well, not nothing. But that's the point? You can't see them." 

Pidge gave a quizzical look towards Lance, before shutting her laptop.

"Can't see what?"

"My contacts! Coran made me contacts! I can see!" He explained happily.

"Wait, you couldn't see before? And you're piloting a giant mechanical lion." Pidge interrogated, hoping that Lance was just exaggerating as she wondered how the hell Coran had made contact lenses.

"Well no, not really. But now I can! I bet he could make some for you too... Do you even need glasses, though?"

Pidge shook her head, removing her glasses and blinking slightly.

"Nah, they're just Matt's. Besides, I can't wear contacts anyway."

Lance opened his mouth to respond, as Pidge raised her index finger to her left eyeball and tapped it twice with her nail. It clinked slightly, as Lance recoiled in horror and Keith, Hunk and Shiro all looked awfully taken aback at the fact that Pidge had just straight up stuck her finger in her eye and it had CLINKED.

"Pidge! What the hell?" Keith asked, screwing up his face in disgust as Pidge put her glasses back on her face. 

"What? It's not real." She said, as the reopened her laptop and continued typing, seemingly oblivious to the shocked looks that were being passed around the room.

"What do you mean it's not real?!" Lance almost seemed to yell, as Pidge winced.

"I mean it's not real. It's a fake eye. And use your inside voice." She murmured quietly, uninterested in the conversation.

"So it's like a glass eye? Like a pirate?" Hunk asked cautiously, as he shuffled, trying to get a good look at Pidge's face. He'd never noticed before how she seemed to cover her left eye with her hair, or how she'd blink a little more on the right side than the left.

She sighed, as she turned to him, staring hard with both eyes - fake or otherwise.  
"Hunk, I'm not a pirate." She looked back to her laptop screen.  
"And it's plastic, not glass. Medical grade acrylic." She muttered, slightly embarrassed.

"Are you blind in that eye? Do you not have depth perception?" Keith questioned, as Pidge saved her work and closed her laptop, knowing that this was just the beginning of the questions. She really wished that she hadn't said anything.

"It's plastic. Of course I can't see out of it. And yes, I have depth perception. It's just like you closing one of your eyes. That's all it is." 

Keith nodded slowly, as Shiro opened his mouth to chip in with his question.

"What happened? If - If I can ask that. Sorry." He asked, softly. She'd never seen their brave and corageous leader looking so cautiously at her, like she was too fragile.

Pidge gave a small shrug.  
"I had cancer as a kid. Neuroblastoma. They removed my eye and gave me a fake one." 

Hunk touched her arm gently, causing Pidge to turn to him. She noticed the anxiety present in his own eyes. 

"Is there a chance of it coming back? The... The cancer?" He whispered, fearfully. Pidge gave what she hoped was a somewhat reassuring smile in an attempt to comfort him.

"Nah. They removed the eye, that's where the cancer was. So it's fine." He didn't look satisfied at this.  
"I'm FINE." She repeated, if a little more forcefully than she'd intended.

"Why didn’t you tell us?" Lance asked, seeming to have gotten over the initial shock that Pidge's eye was made of plastic. 

She sighed, preparing for the tidal wave of questions that was set to come. She could answer questions about the medical side of it with ease. As soon as she was old enough to understand, she'd researched it extensively, desperate to know what had happened to her when she couldn't remember.

"I don't... I mean, I used to get a lot of shit for it from people. Sorry. I didn't think it was that important." 

"Of course it's important!" Shiro stated bluntly. "You're alright though? It isn’t painful? It doesn't... You know."

Pidge did know. She knew all too well what he was going to say. It doesn't affect the fighting or Voltron or the fact that she was meant to save the universe when she was literally half blind.  
And truth be told, it did. She was shit at aiming. If she'd been cursed with a bayard like Lance's, she would've been absolutely fucked. It was okay though, she kept telling herself. She'd just have to work twice as hard. She'd work twice as hard because the fate of the universe was in her hands and she couldn't ignore that fact in favour of a bit of plastic.

"Yeah, yeah. It's fine." She muttered dismissively, as she rose to her feet, tucking her laptop in between her arm and her side.  
"Sorry, I've gotta go. I'll see you all later."  
She sidled off out of the door, taking expert care not to stumble, because God forbid they were worried about her - though she sensed that it was much too late to avoid that.

For once, she really didn't feel like coding or deciphering or anything of that sort. She exhaled as she thought about what she could do instead, not wanting to waste any time.

Pidge eventually found herself wandering to her room, which wasn't really a bedroom, but rather a store room for all of the extra crap that she couldn't fit anywhere else. The door slid open revealing the horrific landfill that was Pidge's room. She knew that the others would probably have a heart attack if they saw it, so the door usually stayed locked, ironically opened via a retinal scan. Not that they others needed to know that, of course. 

She set the laptop down on her desk, and set about with removing the various bits of machinery and other debris that was strewn across her bed. Maybe she'd take a nap. That might be nice.

After the bed was clear, Pidge kicked off her shoes and laid down, curling up into a small ball as she shut her eyes. She was always afraid to sleep on her left side - thinking that her eye would pop out or something, though such a thing had never happened. She was much too careful for that.

She was quickly awakened from her musings by a harsh knock on the door.  
"Pidge?" Lance's voice came from the other side of the door.  
"Can I come in?" Pidge responded with a groan - really not in the mood for socialising. She'd done enough of the sharing and caring shit for one day, and she was tired.

"I'm coming in."

"You can't, it's locked." She called back as the door slid open, very much unlocked. Fuck.

"Holy hell, were you asleep?" Lance said after gasping in mock surprise.

"No." Pidge mumbled, rearranging herself so her face was firmly planted in her pillow.

"Katie Holt sleeping. Now that's wild." Lance quickly made his way across the rubble discarded on the floor to Pidge's bedside.

"C'mon, move over." He said, nudging Pidge. She gave an irritated sigh, before shifting again, edging a little closer to the wall, as Lance crawled onto the mattress next to her.

"Is this about your eye?" He asked, leaning over her, as he tried to get some kind of response. She shook her head, eyes still firmly shut.

"Because we're really sorry. We didn't mean to upset you or anything." He continued on.  
"I think it's really cool though. You and Shiro could be like cyborg buddies or something."

Pidge mumbled something into the pillow incoherently.  
"Sorry Pigeon, didn't quite get that."  
She sighed, before rolling over to face him.

"It's plastic. Hardly robotic." 

Lance shrugged casually, with an airy smile. 

"You say plastic, I say cyborg. Whatever. You can just be prosthetic buddies then."

Pidge rolled back over to face the wall, sighing under her breath.

"I knew you'd all do this. It's why I didn't tell you." She muttered, though Lance was somehow able to pick up on every single word, crystal clear.

"What are we doing?"

"You're asking all these questions! And trying to comfort me or whatever. I don't NEED comforting. I've had it for... Twelve years. I've gotten used to it. It's normal for me. Well, it's not normal, but, y'know. I've dealt with it. And I've explained it all too many times and no one ever seems to get it and they think it's weird or creepy and that I'm weird and creepy or whatever...".

"Pidge?"

"Mm?"

"You're rambling."

Pidge sighed, knowing that she had a tendency to ramble whenever she was nervous. She knew that Lance knew that too.

"Oh, sorry."

"It's okay."

There was a fleeting moment of silence between the two of them before Lance spoke again.

"It wasn't our intention to make you feel uncomfortable or whatever. It just seemed like such a big thing and I think we were all a bit shocked that we'd never noticed or anything like that. But we won't treat you any differently. Promise. Where's your hand?"

"What?" 

"Your hand. Gimme it."

Pidge produced her hand, and held it up to Lance. He wrapped his skinny pinkie finger around her small one.

"See? Pinkie promise. And if I break it, then you break my pinkie."

"Is that how Pinkie promises work?"

"I have absolutely no idea."

Lance let go of Pidge's hand, and she rolled over so that she was staring up at the ceiling with him. Everyone had always been freaked out or overly cautious about it and she really didn't need and sympathy. Maybe just a bit of patience.

"Hey Lance?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you stop throwing shit at me? I can't really aim or catch that well."

"Is that because of the eye thing or because you're a pale nerd whose shit at sports?"

"Both?"

"Yeah, yeah. I gotcha, Pigeon."


	2. Blue cycle ☆

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the requests! They're still open and will probably always stay open so keep sending them in because they're really interesting and I can't wait to start writing them! ♡
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, so please tell me what you think! Xx

'Keep it together.' Lance whispered to himself through gritted teeth. Keith was coming right at him - fists out and ready to punch him, and all Lance had to do was block the hit. It's fine, he could do that. He'd do that then tell Shiro he wasn't feeling so well and then he'd go to bed for a rest and it would all be fine. 

God, he hated hand to hand combat training. 

It was so much easier with his bayard - much easier to hit targets at long range. And it wasn't like he was going to be fighting Galra soldiers without any armour or weapons anyway. At least, he hoped he wouldn't have to.

Lance suddenly snapped back into reality - everything seemingly going in slow motion as he saw a clenched fist coming right at him. He needed to dodge - he needed to do anything. His mind was screaming at him to 'GET OUT OF THE WAY!' But his head felt way too heavy and his feet were firmly planted on the ground.

Movemovemovemovemovemo -

Keith's fist made brutal contact with Lance's abdomen and Lance felt sparks of pain fly up through his body - travelling through his veins, to the ends of his hair and the tips of his toes. He crumpled to the floor in a pathetic heap, breathing heavily as he tried to bring himself back to reality.

"Lance! Get up!" He heard Shiro call out from the sidelines as he remained hunched on the floor. Yeah, cheers Shiro. He hadn't thought of that. Lance opened his mouth to speak but all the came out was a pitiful wheeze.

"Lance, he's coming for you again! Get up!" Lance snapped his head up, just in time to see Keith's foot rapidly coming towards him. In the split second before it made contact, Lance was able to collapse on his left side, managing to dodge and leaving Keith to kick thin air.

"...Time... Out..." He wheezed desperately as he lay on the floor, trying to get the room to stop spinning. His stomach was in agony and he really hoped that he wasn't about to throw up or pass out or something along those lines.

"Is he sick or something?" Keith asked, from somewhere above Lance's head.  
"Should we take him to a pod?"  
Lance shifting slightly, attempting to manoeuvre himself onto his knees so he could get up.  
"No pod." He gasped out, stumbling to his feet, still with one hand resting on the ground.

"Whoa, buddy, take it easy. Hang on." He heard as Hunk's arms wrapped around him, lifting him up. Lance leaned on Hunk, still breathing heavily as he looked around the room. He glanced down to the spot where he'd laid, and noticed it.

Apparently Pidge did at the same time - giving a small squeak, before clamping her hand over her mouth. Pidge's outburst had caught the attention of Shiro, who followed Pidge's gaze to the floor.

"Is that blood!?" He bellowed, rushing to Lance's aid. He swatted away Shiro's hands and looked across to Pidge who simply mouthed a weak 'sorry'.

"Shit, did I injure you?" Keith asked, concerned for the wellbeing of the blue paladin. How the hell did he hurt him? He punched him - that was all! Keith looked down to his hands, making sure that he hadn't suddenly sprouted any wolverine-esque Galra claws.

"No, no, it's fine. I'm fine." Lance reassured them, as he tried to break free from Hunk's grasp, to prove that he could stand on his own two feet and that no, he wasn't dying.

Pidge had made her way over to him, and was now gripping his arm and attempting to lead him over to the door. Shiro blocked her path, standing there with folded arms and that awful authoritative expression.

"Lance, are you injured? I need to know."

"I - I'm not injured."

"You're bleeding. Look, I'll get Coran and you might not even need to go in the pods - "

"I said I'm not injured!" Lance responded defiantly.

Shiro raised an eyebrow at this, looking Lance up and down. He seemed scared - desperate. The pods weren't that pleasant but they all had to be in peak physical condition.

"People don't usually tend to bleed unless they're injured."

Hunk was standing behind Lance and Pidge wildly miming for him to 'Shut the hell up and stop talking' - but their brave and intelligent leader was not getting the message at all, unfortunately.

"Some people do," Pidge muttered under her breath. "Come on, Lance." She urged, dodging around Shiro, dragging Lance after her.

The door slid open and the two quickly rushed out - Lance stumbling slightly, black spots starting to form in his vision. 

"Is it bad?" Pidge whispered harshly, as the door slid closed once more. She could already start to hear the murmurs inside. She desperately hoped that Hunk would explain it to them - but right now, the trans kids needed to stick together and she'd do the best she could.

Lance paused for a moment, leaning against the wall. His face had almost gone grey, and a bead of sweat ran down his cheek. Or maybe it was a tear - he wasn't quite sure anymore. Everything ached horribly and he really didn't want to vomit all over Pidge - she was being so nice to him.

He took a deep breath and gave a small nod.  
"Okay, right, I'll find a heating pad or some - "

"...I have endometriosis."

"You what?"

"It's... It's where the tissue grows on the outside of the - " 

"Lance, I know what endometriosis is. My mom has it."

"... Sorry."

Pidge gave a weak grin as she looked up to the sickly and lanky figure leaning against the wall.

"Lance, it's fine. Right - I'll find some stuff and you could get a hot shower or something? My mom always said baths helped but I'm guessing that you don't really want to ask Allura...?"

Lance shook his head rapidly, making himself feel even more dizzy. 

"Okay, right, you use my shower and I'll get you some clean clothes and other shit and then you can take a nap?"

"Yeah, okay..."

Lance edged himself away from the wall cautiously, testing his balance on his feet before looking down at Pidge - meeting his blue eyes with very tired and concerned hazel ones.

"How do you know how to deal with like... This stuff? Aren't you... Y'know..."

Pidge raised a hand for him to stop talking.

"I've spent too much time with teenage girls and I swear to quiznak, Lance - Periods are all they talk about. Right, off to the shower with you now before you bleed everywhere. Need help getting there."

Lance shook his head in response to this, giving her a tired smile. 

"Okay - off you go then! Be careful." And with that, Pidge sped off down the hall leaving Lance to slowly make his way to Pidge's room. 

He kept telling himself that it wasn't that far away, that he needed to just suck it up and go get clean because right now he was really gross. He'd managed to bleed through his pants - so he probably wasn't doing so great on the bleeding front.

Those telltale black spots started clouding his vision again, and Lance was already gasping for breath, clutching his abdomen with both hands as his head throbbed with an awful headache. Lance told himself that he was being pathetic - attention seeking, that it wasn't that bad.

Taking a shaking breath, Lance leaned against the wall again, wincing as the cold metal came into contact with his bare skin. He'd just stay here for a few seconds, regain his composure - and then he'd go shower.

Without realising it, Lance had slid down the wall, his head now in between his knees, his arms wrapped tightly around his abdomen. He could feel tears starting to form in his eyes and cursed himself for being so weak.

Lance quickly attempted to get back to his feet, and keep walking. Stumbling forwards, Lance barely managed to not fall over. Shaking his arms and legs around a little, he started the slow trek to Pidge's room, black dots clouding his vision more and more until he could barely see.

And then he couldn't see.

The blindness was terrifying, as Lance tried to swallow vomit back down and fight the awful, awful pain and also figure out where he was going. His own footsteps and shallow breaths echoed in his ears as he tried to reach out and support himself on a wall. He was going to pass out, and there was nothing he could do about it.

His stomach lurched as he realised that he was falling, falling, falling...

Lance hit the solid ground and all other senses were wiped out too as he slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

...

......

"-ance?"

...

"Oh my God, Lance!"

"Is he okay?"

"Did he pass out?!"

"Lance, can you hear me - "

" - ance, speak to - "

...

"- ake up - "

...

......

Sight seemed to come back first as Lance opened his eyes only to be faced with harsh bright lights. Sound then came back to him, the familiar voices of his friends blooming wonderfully in his ears like wonderful flowers. He could almost smell them.

No, he could smell flowers. Where had they gotten flowers in space?

He was suddenly embraced by something - or rather, someone - soft and squishy and comforting. This someone smelt of the flowers and baked goods and like home. Lance guessed it was Hunk, and found his suspicions confirmed when the someone gave a gleeful laugh.

"Lance! You're awake! We were so worried!" Hunk exclaimed, squeezing Lance tighter.

"You really gave us a scare there, Lance." Shiro's voice coolly cut through the air, as Lance prepared for the bollocking that he was in for later. Probably something about teamwork and not keeping secrets, though there was never really a good way to say 'I have a vagina that is currently bleeding.' 

Though he supposed he could just say that.

"S - Sorry. Where am I? Do you...?" Lance choked out miserably, Hunk still crushing him.

"Pidge explained it all - " Shiro began.

"Yeah, sorry, I had to." She interrupted.

" - Thank you, Pidge. And we're just glad that you're okay. Or as okay as you can be, considering... You're in the infirmary."

Hunk released Lance from his iron grip, he helped Lance to prop himself up on the pillows so that he could look around. It was then that he noticed that in was not wearing the clothes he had passed out in, but rather his pyjamas. Quiznak.

"Allura had some pad thingies for you, apparently Altean's do have a cycle but it's not like that of humans, rather it's - "

"Pidge, please spare us the biology lesson." Keith cut in, really not wanting the full details of the Altean menstrual cycle.

"Yeah, whatever Keith. And look!" She exclaimed proudly, producing a small bottle of a sparkling blue liquid.  
"Altean painkillers! It's blue and everything. Coran worked out the dosage and wrote it down but it's all in Altean, so you'll have to get him to read it."

Lance grinned, rearranging himself on the pillows slightly, as Pidge set the bottle down on the stand next to his bed. He noticed a scrap of paper next to it, with a foreign script hastily jotted down and he guessed that was the dosage.

"Thanks guys, really. Sorry for not telling you about my... thing." He murmured, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Do us a favour and please don't pass out again. Keith thought he'd killed you or something." Shiro chipped in, making Keith wince slightly.

"He was lying on the floor, bleeding, and barely breathing!"

"Aww, mullet. You care about me. I can't believe I missed another bonding moment!"

"Whatever, Lance." He muttered under his breath, folding his arms and turning away from him.

"You should get some rest though, we'll bring you some food later?" Hunk asked, patting Lance's leg with his hand. Lance nodded in response, settling back into the pillows. The sudden movement caused a jolt of pain through his body, and Lance quickly grabbed his stomach. Hunk grabbed his arm, as the others clamoured about his wellbeing, needing to know that he was okay.

"I'm fine... But can someone get Coran, please? I'm kinda needing some of that painkiller stuff right now."

Periods were awful. But with friends, they were... Still pretty awful. But with magical Altean medicine? He'd survive.

**Author's Note:**

> This is really just a place for me to throw all my shitty angsty and whumpy ideas ♡ (does anyone still say that anymore?)
> 
> Comments are very much appreciated and if there's any requests that you have or anything you'd like to see, then either comment below or message me on tumblr : togepixels.tumblr.com ♡  
> If it intrigues me, hopefully I'll get round to it! Xx


End file.
